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Pet Shop of Horrors Director: Toshio Hirata Number of Items: 1 Format: Color, Animated, Dolby Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 95 minutes Studio: Urban Vision Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2001-02-27 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 24 Average rating: 5.0 "Superb Anime is Difficult to Find" Petshop of Horrors is certainly one of them. I watched it in Japanese, English, and with the Voice Overs, then watched the deleted material without getting bored at all. Count D is so beautiful it's hard to get bored staring at him. The plots themselves each have little twists, and isn't quite the average 'horror' anime. The horror isn't presented by showing the most gruesome acts possible. Instead, it leaves the 'door open' there. When you don't know what it is you're fleeing from it's all the more terrifying, and that's what Petshop of Horrors does. Leon is wonderful and plays right into the story too. Especially in the third episode, where Count D very openly taunts him by telling him he should crush a bird and eat its bones because his irritation must be due to lack of nutrition. Every bit of the show is aesthetically pleasing, a lot of work was put into the animation. Inricate designs are on most everything, and if something has smoke rising out of it the smoke will dance in perfect swirls. If you're the type that enjoyed Vampire Princess Miyu, you might find yourself loving this anime even more (though I love Larva too). "Tales from the Crypt anyone?" This movie is about a cross-dressing pet shop owner with very unique animals with a bizarre tales of love, tragic, and horror. Stories are very original..to some extent and its an animation version of "Tales from the crypt" or "The Twilight zone." Pet Shop of Horrors gives you something to think about. our moral values, honesty, and love for greed and it's enough to keep you interested 'till the end.. but not enough for you to go "WOW.. best anime ever!!"...It would've made an excellent short story novel!! "I found something I desired..." I've seen quite a bit of anime but I can say without a doubt this is some of the best I've seen. It's the perfect combination of creepiness and humor. I would suggest the DVD instead of the 2 videos simply because you can choose to watch it either in English or in Japanese and it's definatly worth seeing in Japanese even if just to watch D shriek with delight over his various sweets he's given over the course of the 4 episodes. The music's great, the voices are wonderful, and the animation is top-notch so if you're an anime fan I would suggest Petshop of Horrors. ""Count D no Pettoshop e youkoso. Koko wa Chinatown..."" 'Welcome to Count D's Pet Shop. This is Chinatown, a mysterious place where rare and valuable commodities are in abundance. Tonight, you will surely find something you desire.' You don't find anything odd about the above, do you? Pet Shop of Horrors is a rare find in itself, although many have claimed it to be simply a different take on a common theme. Don't simply brush it aside as 'normal' horror anime (much of which is not very well done), it's actually quite well done for what it is. The setting is supposedly LA's Chinatown. Deep inside Chinatown, there is a mysterious, luxurious pet shop. The owner is an equally mysterious young man with a weakness for sweets, the effeminate 'Count' D. D's shop has many clients, even some numbering among the rich and famous. Recently, it has come to the attention of a young, brash homicide detective named Leon that there has been a string of mysterious deaths - all were clients of the pet shop. Of course, there is a reason for this. After all, this is no ordinary pet shop and there are certain terms that each customer must be sure to keep to. If the terms are not kept to, management will not assume any responsibility for what happens. Unfortunately, during the course of these four OAV episodes, none of the customers manage to adhere to their contracts. They do, however, get what they deserve. The episodes are very nicely animated with rich coloring and fluid character movement, and I heavily recommend the Japanese version over the English dub for the most part. The DVD transfer is flawless and sparkling. There are a few extras included, such as the original opening song and commentary by the English voice cast. If you find this OAV interesting, please check out the original (albeit hard-to-find) manga by Matsuri Akino, as it answers the many questions that the ending will leave you with (and for all you shounen-ai fans who noticed the odd 'tension' between D and Leon, there's payoff). So, check out Pet Shop of Horrors - in the end, surely you'll find something that you desire. "Something you desire..." I have watched a fair share of anime series in my time and I can honestly say Pet shop is definetly one of the most unique, interesting and fascinating ever. Not only are the stories creepy and full of nice little mean twists and wonderfully screwed up characters it's impossible not to love, but aside from LAIN this is the best dub work I have ever heard in an anime series. CONTENT: Even though all the stories are based on the same premise ("don't brake these 3 rules or your pet will kill you") the stories all have different morales and ideas behind them making each show different from the last. DAUGHTER is about how too much love is not a good thing. DESIRE is about not confusing guilt with true love. DESPAIR is about living a short but happy life and be remembered for the good things. DUAL is about sacrificing everything for someone else and thus gaining one's own happiness. I like them all, and I LOVE the first one. DVD: has great features. True, the dleted material is really just a weird video opening that I thank God they didn't use on the show, but there are also a number of interesting trailers, and best of all a commentary with the director and the voice actors for Count D and Leon the cop. Now THAT is really hillarious and quite enlightening at the same time. That's worth the price in itself. I highly recommend this to anyone.